Monday-Tuesday 9:30-6:00, Wednesday 9:30-2:00, Mecklenburg Hall

Pointman: A New Control for Simulating Tactical Infantry Movements
- Naval Research Laboratory, Denbrook Computing Services -

We will demonstrate Pointman, a new device-based locomotion control that allows users to move their avatars through a 3D virtual world in a tactically correct manner. Pointman combines a dual joystick gamepad with a tracked head-coupled display and sliding foot pedals. With Pointman, both thumb-joysticks provide independent directional control over course and heading: the user points to control the avatar’s direction of movement with one stick and the heading of the upper body with the other, making it easy move along a path while looking from side to side, critical for executing tactical movements but difficult to achieve with convention gamepad control mappings.

Affordable Infrared-Optical Pose-Tracking for Virtual and Augmented Reality
- Interactive Media Systems Group, Vienna University of Technology -

We present a new low-cost infrared-optical pose-tracking system for room-sized virtual environments. The system consists of 4-8 shutter-synchronized 1394-cameras with an optical bandpass filter and infrared illuminator. All image processing is done in software on an attached workstation. Preliminary results indicate low latency 20-40ms, minimal jitter (RMS less than 0.05mm/0.02°), sub-millimeter location resolution and an absolute accuracy of +/-0.5cm. Currently, ten independent 6-DOF targets can be tracked in real-time with up to 60Hz.




Tactile Feedback at the Finger Tips for Improved Direct Interaction in Immersive Environments
- Volkswagen AG, Group Research, Bauhaus-University Weimar -

We present a new tactile feedback system for finger-based interactions in immersive virtual reality applications that consists of shape memory alloy wires wrapped around tracked finger thimbles. The wires touch the inside of the fingertips and provide an impression when they are shortened. We use this system to communicate finger contacts with virtual objects in a demonstration application.




Game of cooking with scents using an interactive olfactory display
- Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Nagahama Design Office, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music -

The game of cooking with scents using an olfactory display has been recently developed through collaboration between electronic engineers and artists. The olfactory display has the function of blending multiple odor components, and its recipe can be changed in real time. People can drop in at our booth to enjoy the mysterious experience of making a curry in a virtual environment.

Mental Health and Rehabilitation projects at The University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies
- University of Southern California, Virtually Better Inc. -

We will provide demonstrations of a range of projects from the USC Institute for Creative Technologies VRPSYCH Lab (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/vrpsych/), including: the latest version of Virtual Iraq, a suite of upper extremity motor rehabilitation applications, the Virtual Patient, and VRCPAT- a cognitive assessment system.




"Magic Lens" Augmented Reality Demo using the ARTag System
- National Research Council of Canada -

With the "Magic Lens" system, a user holds a tablet PC with an internal camera and "looks through" it seeing a mixture of real and virtual reality. The ARTag (www.artag.net) augmented reality system is used, the augmentations are visible above a panel of special bar-code like fiducial markers.